No matter what Bai Youwei and Shen Mo said, the village chief stubbornly insisted it could not possibly be monkshood.

Afterward, the two of them returned to the woman’s house, only to find that the potted plant on the windowsill had vanished, and the little girl was nowhere to be seen.

Without evidence, everything was pointless. Besides, the most pressing matter right now was not figuring out how people became werewolves — it was figuring out how to avoid them.

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo went to the blacksmith’s shop to pick up the silver daggers they had commissioned the day before.

Weighty in the hand — the blade gleamed with silver brightness, the hilt dark and solid black.

Bai Youwei gripped the dagger and was silent for a long moment before asking the blacksmith, “All the silver I gave you went into this?”

“Of course, all of it!” the blacksmith said without a hint of shame. “All of it wasn’t even enough! I had to chip in this much iron out of my own pocket!”

Bai Youwei: “…”

If she’d had more time, she would absolutely have forced him to melt it down and start over.

“Having silver only on the blade is sufficient.” Shen Mo took the dagger and weighed it in his palm. “If the whole thing were silver, the material would actually be too soft — it wouldn’t be sharp enough.”

Bai Youwei was unhappy about it. She muttered under her breath, “With the amount he used, the silver I gave him was enough to make two daggers.”

Shen Mo gave a faint smile. “He’s just an NPC. No point getting worked up over him. Let’s go — we only have 8 hours of daylight, we need to make good use of the time and gather clues.”

Even the blacksmith nodded along at hearing this. “Yes, yes! Off you go, get back to your business!”

He couldn’t wait to be rid of them.

Bai Youwei shot him a withering look. “Watch out that a werewolf doesn’t come for you tonight!”

The blacksmith gave a sly grin. “You two haven’t died yet — why would it be my turn?”

“What do you mean by that?” Bai Youwei’s brow furrowed.

But the blacksmith gave no answer, just waved them off. “I’m closing up! No business today — go on, go on!…”

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo were shooed out the door, and the blacksmith’s doors and windows slammed shut one after another, sealing every crack.

“Unbelievable…” Bai Youwei gave the door a kick. “After pocketing so much of my silver, of course he has no need to do any more business! He made an absolute killing!”

“Leave it.” Shen Mo pulled her away. “Consider it a service fee — we never paid him for making the nails and the dagger.”

Bai Youwei’s frown deepened, her whole face full of displeasure. “The rip-off is a small matter, but that thing he said just now was so strange. What did he mean — ‘You two haven’t died yet, so why would it be my turn?'”

She thought about it, and the more she thought, the more it bothered her. “Was it really a coincidence that blood was smeared on Dim’s door? Was it truly just a random act of framing? Or did these villagers originally plan to band together against us outsiders?”

“Even if that’s the case, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Shen Mo said evenly. “That’s how the game rules work. It would actually be strange if the werewolves only attacked villagers and not players.”

The Jester Inspector had said: when one of the two kings was killed by a werewolf, the other side would automatically win.

Bai Youwei needed to keep her survival rate as high as possible.

Dim had died on the first night. Perhaps on the second night, it would be her and Shen Mo’s turn.

“Let’s go back to the little girl’s house and take another look,” Bai Youwei said.

Shen Mo nodded, and the two of them left the blacksmith’s shop and headed toward the little girl’s home.

On the other side, beneath a cluster of persimmon trees, Hans was in low, hushed conversation with his followers —

“This village is not as simple as it appears,” Hans said. “Dim’s death — the blame falls on me. If I had found the clues sooner, he would not have died so horribly.”

Molin comforted him: “Hans, you don’t need to blame yourself. You’ve done everything a king can do.”

“Fortunately Hans now knows the key to all of this,” Breil sighed. “Dim’s death was not in vain. This battle — we’ll win it, just like we always have.”

“Yes.” Hans gave a slow nod and looked at the two of them. “Bai Youwei doesn’t seem to have figured it out yet… This is our chance. We will win, without a doubt.”